States for 2012 was climate conditions in Scandinavia, Siberia, Alaska and Canada have been colder than average this winter.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that the Arctic sea ice extent for December 2012 was well below average, driven by anomalously low ice conditions in the Kara, Barents, and Labrador seas.
NSIDC states that the winter has been dominated by the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, bringing the cold climate around the Arctic.
The Arctic Oscillation is an Arctic climate index with positive and negative phases, which represents the state of atmospheric circulation over the Arctic. The positive phase brings lower-than-normal pressure over the polar region, steering ocean storms northward, bringing wetter weather to Scotland and Scandinavia, and drier conditions to areas such as Spain and the Middle East.
Reports today also show that the average temperature for USA for 2012 was above average, showing different climate than in the Arctic, outside of Alaska.
Sources
On the other hand, along with higher temperatures, the Antarctic Peninsula on the west coast of the continent, has experienced a marked switch from snowfall to rain during the summer, which has led to rapid expansion of plant communities and the colonization of newly available land by plants and animals. In addition, there has been significant thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, especially around the Amundsen Sea Embayment, as well as a few smaller coastal areas in East Antarctica, which has resulted in diminishing Krill stocks and changed distribution of Adélie penguins.
COP15 president Connie Hedegaard resigned this morning. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will replace her as head of the Conference. Hedegaard has maintained herself that nothing dramatic is behind her resignation and that she will continue her work as a negotiator in the COP15 as a special representative of Mr. Lokke Rasmussen. Over 100 heads of States will arrive to Copenhagen for the last three days of negotiations and it is only natural that the Danish Prime Minister takes over the presidency of the Conference at this point, she said.
China, India and other developing nations boycotted Climate talks today, as a protest and to demand that rich countries discuss a far more extensive cut in their emissions. This is believed to include 135 nations, which will refuse to participate in any formal working groups until the issue was resolved. This has to bee seen as a setback for the talks, and illustrates the long-term dispute between rich and poor nations over emissions cuts and financing cuts to deal with climate change. This has however not been interpreted as the talks are falling apart al together but rather as a ploy intended to move the agenda to the responsibilities of the industrial countries before the arrival of over 100 world leaders are scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen.
So far the major issues around the Copenhagen COP15 have concentrated on the participation of world leaders to one of the biggest gathering in the field of environmental law and politics. The aim is to reach an agreement on post-Kyoto CO2 emission reduction. Many leading scientists maintain that the world’s CO2 rate has reached dangerous levels and that if nothing is done to reduce the emissions the world will face unprecedented consequences. Legally binding agreement for the world’s leading polluters is inevitably necessary, but it is debatable whether the political will of states is enough to create any change.
Guardian / cop15.dk – There seems to be a great change coming in the climate change negotiations, after the “Danish” draft of an agreement was leaked to media yesterday. The developing countries accuse the draft of being a legalisation of the developing / industrialized division in the world and contributing to the already existing problems in the developing countries. The UNFCCC head Yvo de Boer on the other hand said that only an informal paper is in question and that formal proposals will be only provided by the Chairs of the Conference.
Now when almost all the major players have announced their emission reduction targets, the talk has turned to money and the ways the battle against climate change can be financed. The US has proposed that a new climate fund should be established under the World Bank, which would direct funding to climate projects in developing countries. Further, the Asian Development Bank intends to direct 700 million dollars to two new investment funds that will primarily concentrate on financing climate change projects in developing countries. In short term, it has been estimated, that some 10 billion dollars are needed to cover the costs of the most current developments. In long term, some 100 billion dollars a year might be needed to cover the costs of climate change adaptation.
Arctic Council
The Times – As aspired as a new global climate change agreement in Copenhagen is, it has begun to seem that an agreement with almost any content is enough. One of the world’s leading climate change scientists, James Hansen from Nasa’s Goddard Institute, has expressed his doubts on the existing emission trade system comparing it to selling indulgences. Rich countries buy emission credits from developing countries with relatively small amounts and contribute that way to the existing economic inbalance between industrialized and developing countries. The system in itself is not designed to reduce emissions, but rather to create an image of reduction and equality, though failing in both. Very few open discussions have taken place on what exactly should be the content of the new agreement and little or none public evaluation on the success or failure of the Kyoto protocol has taken place.